Maybe it’s the exclamation point. Whenever I get a message such as the one that came into my IN box an hour ago:
Bobby Harrell is now following you on Twitter!
Bobby Harrell (@SpeakerHarrell) is now following your tweets (@BradWarthen) on Twitter.
… I always feel like it’s meant to be a warning of some kind. WATCH OUT!
Maybe I feel that way particularly because I spent a couple of hours today listening to Barbara Seymour, the Deputy Disciplinary Counsel to the Supreme Court of South Carolina (author, for instance, of “Eight Simple Ways to Lose Your Law License by Email“), speak eloquently, cogently and in great detail about how dangerous social media can be.
Of course, she was speaking specifically to the dangers (ethically, professionally, etc.) of social media to lawyers and their firms — this was a meeting of the SC chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (I was there because ADCO works with a number of law firms) — but it was still pretty scary. I might write a post about it later — or rather, a post about a long-standing topic of interest to me: What does it mean to be a “friend” on Facebook? How “social” are these media? What are the implications (social as well as legal and ethical) of the connections thus formed, and how should one express oneself in such venues? Etc.
Interesting stuff (to me). But I digress.
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Sounds fascinating… NOT.
It is to me. And that’s the kind of stuff (or one of the kinds of stuff) you’ll find here if you stick around on this blog. Don’t say I didn’t tell you…
I have heard Barbara Seymour speak on this and other topics, and she always has enlightening and entertaining stories to share. Amazing how dumb people can be when pecking away at a computer keyboard. Of course, if we all just practiced courtesy and manners like our mammas taught us, we’d save ourselves a lot of trouble.